Bottle stopper



Feb. 16, 1937.

E. GREEN E- BOTTLE STOPPER Ofiginal Filed Feb. 28. 1935 Patented Feb. 16, 1937 UNITED S'i' BOTTLE STOPPER Edgeworth Greene, Upper Montclair, N. J.

Application February 28, 1935, Serial No. 8,605 Renewed April 22, 936

5 Claims.

This invention relates to stoppers or fitments for bottles or similar containers, and more particularly to stoppers or fitments for rendering such containers non-refillable.

Devices of this general character are illustrated in certain of my pending applications for patents, e. g., Serial No. 592,209, filed February 11, 1932, and Serial No. 735,950, filed July 19, 1934.

a An object of the invention is to provide a stopper or fitment of the kind described, so constructed as to permit the dispensing of liquid from the bottle in a steady continuous stream Without impairing the other functions of the device, and which, in particular, shall be effective to prevent refilling; While at the same time it shall be largely proof against the accidents of shipping and assembly.

The novel features of the invention will be described fully in connection with the detailed description of the accompanying figures of drawing illustrating the preferred form of the invention, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a vertical section of a stopper embodying the invention and secured to the neck of a bottle;

Fig. 2 is a section taken substantially on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1 and looking in the direction of the arrows of that figure;

Fig. 3 is a vertical section of the same stopper showing the relation of parts when the bottle is held in inclined position with the mouth of the fitment open to a body of liquid, as when an attempt is made to refill; and

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the inner or under face of the cover part of the stopper.

Referring to the drawing, ll) indicates the neck of a container such as a bottle having a top edge H and a bead l2 spaced from the top portion by groove I4. Secured to the bottle neck is a stopper including a valve casing 15, preferably of thin sheet metal, a cover member I6 having a central orifice I1, and a gasket I8. Within the valve casing is suitable valve mechanism comprising a fiat valve disc 19, a Weighted valve member 2%. and a guard member 2|. The stopper is secured in position by means of a ferrule 22, having a part 24 conforming to the shape of the top of the cover member l6, and having a skirt portion 25 spun into the groove l4 and over bead l2.

The interior longitudinal wall of the casing is provided with ribs 25, curved in cross section (Fig. 2), which form a number of channels 21 for the passage of liquid andair. These ribs terminate short of the upper end of the valve casing, so that that upper portion is substantially truly cylindrical, in order that the cross section here may be maximum; in order that the upper end of the casing may receive the spacing and frictional lugs of cover [6 without necessity for 6 taking care to have the lugs out of alignment with channels 2?; and in order to facilitate the formation of suspension flange 28, which is prefbers; The lower end of thecasing is formed into i a bottom having a substantially central through opening defined by an outwardly projecting ,tue bule 3G, such opening being surrounded at the inner end of the tubule by a flat valve seat 3| spaced from the wall of the casing and elevated relative to the lower extremity of the easing. The elevation of the valve seat provides an annular trough around the seat 3! when viewed in the upright position of the bottle (Fig. 1). This formation has three important functions: First, by in effect isolating the valve seat from the adjacent walls of the casing it aids in preventing the formation of films which would dam or obstruct the free passage of air into the bottle in pouring and insures that no film having a short radiusof curvature, and therefore high obstructive power, can be formed adjacent the seat. Second, it enlarges the air space immediately adjacent the passage into the bottle, and by its form appears to materially promote the freeflow of air therethrough byminimizing fluctuations of air pressure at the point of ingress of air into the bottle. Third, the seat, being connected to the wall of the valve casing bymeans of a curved annulus,is reinforced by this annulus so that it can withstand, without deformation, considerable pressure applied axially of the casing. Moreover, if the weight and/or guard member (hereinafter described) be made of porcelain or some other material which is relatively more frangible or deformable than is the valve seat, breakage or deformation of these parts will occur before the valve seat has been mutilated to an extent sufficient to permit liquid to be forced into the bottle. Such breakage would interfere with the pouring clerance necessary for successful operation. The curved annulus joining the valve seat to the wall of the valve casing also provides a passage 31 whereby liquid flowing into the valve casing through the tubule 30 may pass freely around the valve disc into the channels provided by the ribs or flutes 26, and air entering from the exterior of the bottle may pass freely from the valve casing into the valve opening. The tubule 30 adds to the strength of the valve casing, and afiords protection to the valve seat against accidental injury such as might happen in shipping or assembling operations; and it has another function which will be described in con nection with the description of operation of the valve parts.

7 may be tin-plated to withstand the action of spirituous or other liquids. Copper is utilized as the base material, because it is cheap,'workable, and sufiiciently tough and rigid for the purposes of the structure in which it'is embodied. And it is acceptable so far as concernsits effect on the V and disc are submerged sufficiently in liquid, the

bottledliquids for the protection of whichthe 7 device is generally employed: ei g.,' whiskey,

brandy, rum, etc, particularly when tin-plated. It is specially important that the valve seat be accurately formed,,1"lat,. andsmooth. Therefore it is die-worked, and the piercing of the opening defined by the tubule 30, is from the. interior of I the shell outward, and so that the valve seat is free from adventitiousinequalities of surface. I

am thus ableto secure a liquid-tight seal of the valve disc with the valve se at; and yet if slight yacuum develops'in'v a tightly corkedv bottle because of cooling of the contained liquid, the vac- ,uumis readily broken, upon opening of the valve chamber to atmosphere, by air passing between the']smoothsurface of theseat and the minutely f; irregular surfaces of, the valve disc, these irregularitiesbeing too'slight to permit liquid passage, however, under such trifling pressures. greater pressures are used, as when anattempt is made to refill a bottle equipped with the fitment, the cork disc presses on the seat more tightly and seals the bottle. The metal-of the valve casing is as stated of the. minimum thickness commensurate with required rigidity and strength, forexample a thickness of the order of /1Q0ths of an inch'or even less. The flange 28 as shown'in the drawing, is of considerably less width than is the top H. of the bottle neck.

, It is also possible and may in some cases be preferred to form the under face of the cover member IS with an appropriate annular depressed seat to receive the flange of the valve casing,

the thickness of the flange in such case being preferably greater than the depth of the seat The valve disc I9 is made of some buoyant material, such as laminated cork or any other suit- :able material. This disc is of considerably smaller diameter than the diameter of the section determined by ribs 26, the latter being, as already noted, so formed that there is clearance sufilcient to prevent the formation of films of small radius of curvature between them and the valve seat. This requires that the disc be capable of some considerable lateral movement relative to the longitudinal walls of the valve casing. The disc, however, must be of such diameter that it can preferably completely cover the valve-seat 3|, and certainly so that it can effectively close th inner end of the tubule 35 in even its most eccentric position relative to the tubule. I 7

The disc is to be of minimum thickness compatible with other requisitesand its edge curvature and clearance have a predeterminedproper bounted by a narrow'flat edge portion orrim 20",

the flat surface of which that confronts the valve disc l9 being in a plane. The weight 2!) is made When of some suitable material, such as, preferably, unglazed porcelain, glass, metal, etc. When the disc and the weight are wet and are brought into contact with each other in the presence of sufficient air, they will adhere to each other, a thin film of liquid forming between the fiat rim 20 and the disc l9, continuous with a slightly thicker film between the concavity 20 and the disc. However, if with the bottle inverted, the weight surface tension film between the weight and the valve disc is broken, the more readily and quickly because of the concavity at the bottom of the Y weight member, and the disc, due to its buoyancy,

will float on the liquid and close the valve-opens ing 33. Matters of weight, areas of surfaces in operative contact, depth of concavity 20, etc.

must be empirically determined so that in'pour ing', as the weight moves in a direction away from the valve seat, it will carry the valve disc along And it is necessary that'the' submerged, and to o-vercomethe adhesion, be-

tween the valve disc and the valve seat when the parts are in pouring position, so that movement of the member 20 away from the valve seat will cause simultaneous movement of the disc to un-- cover the valve opening for normal pouring. v It is desirable also that the weight, once it has pulled the disc away from the valve seatQand. carried it to valve-open position, shall main tain the'disc in that position throughout the v fashion, with the walls of the cone formed into a a plurality of ribs 2!; whereby such contact between the outer surfaces of; the conical part of the member 20 and the wall of the hollowed out portion of the guard as would result in adhesion 7 between these two parts is prevented. Prefer ably, the guard is provided with a depending por- The cover member It may be made of any suitable material, such as porcelain, glass, metal, etc. Projecting from the bottom of the cover member adjacent the central orifice I1, is a number (three are shown) of integral lugs 34, uniforrnly spaced apart, and so dimensioned that a circle that includes the outer surfaces 34" of the lugs is slightly greater .in' diameter than the internal diameter of the upper cylindrical part of the valve casing, the surfaces 34' being beveled at their ends as shown at 34"; accordingly it The top of. H V

ispossible tcenter the lugs into the valve casing,

where they will be held by the friction of the Thus, the parts can be assembled for handling with the valve mechanism retained within the valve casing, and breakage of the lugs is minimized because the lugs are quite wide as to the surfaces that engage the casing wall, diminishing in width in the direction towards the orifice II. In this connection it should be noted that the presence of the lugs inv the upper end of the valve casing does not shut 01f liquid flow-first because ribs 26 do notextend as far up in the casing as the ,bottom of the-lugs, and second because vof the generous spacing between luS their length, the fact'that they are disposed about a relatively large discharge orifice I'Land the fact that the spaces between lugs increase progressively from their inner surfaces 36 towards their outer surfaces 34. The lugs 34 also serve as stops limiting movement of the guard, weight and disc towards the cover member and away from the valve seat. In the under surface of the cover member are a number of arcuate shaped grooves 35 extending betweenthe respective lugs 34, the inner limits of these grooves being defined by upstanding rims35 located in a plane slightly below the plane of the, flat gasket engaging surface l6 of the cover. '(Fig. 4.)

The gasket 18 is made of some suitable material such as cork, and asshown, it is wider than the'flange ZB so that the top surface of the gasket makes contact both with the bottom surface of the flange 28 and with the underside N5 of the cover member l6. When the gasket is compressed and the stopper locked in place, the gasket serves to make aliquid tight and airtight seal between the top of the bottle and the cover member, and the valve casing, thereby preventing any leakage of liquid or entry of air.

A stopper made up as shown and described, when attached to a filled container of liquid, such as a bottle, will serve to dispense the liquid and at the same time will oppose the introduction of other liquid into the bottle. The liquid may be dispensed by tilting the bottle to a not-too-steep angle, or pouring position. As the bottle .is moved to this pouring position, the weight and the disc will adhereto each other, and due to the physical weight of the member 20, the disc is carried by the latter away from the valve seat, permitting liquid from the bottle to enter the casing, from which it flows through the central orifice in the cover member. When the bottle is restored to upright position, the disc is forced back into contact with the valve seat due to the action of gravity upon the weight and the guard. In this upright position, liquid cannot enter the bottle since the valve disc is seated firmly on the valve seat; and if an attempt is made to force liquid into the bottle under pressure, the contact between the disc and the seat is obviously undisturbed. If the bottle is inverted and air evacuated from it, liquid still cannot be forced vertically thereinto, since as the liquid rises in the valve casing the valve disc will float and move upwardly and seal the valve opening.

An attempt might be made to refill a discharged bottle by exhausting the air from it and then holding it at a slight angle from the horizontal, as indicated in Fig. 3 (where 45 indicates the liquid to be introduced into the bottle and where the weight is not effective to press the disc to closed position), reliance being placed on the proposition that if the liquid be now drawn in very slowly at this angle of the bottle with respect to the outside liquid level, and the being increasingly submerged) is broken, the

more promptly because of the presence of co cavity 20; as a result the lower part of the disc floats away from its adhesive engagementwith the weight and contacts the lower arc of the valve seat, while the upper portion of the disc remains in contact, hinge fashion, with the upper part of the weight edge, and would so remain if somehow the forces tending to move the disc towards the valve seat did not eventually overbalance the slight adhesion of the upper portion of the disc to the weight. However, with proper proportioning of parts and relations of opposed adhesion surfaces of disc-and-wkeightand disc-and-valve seat, depth of concavity 26, size and weight of disc, etc., one may insure that under all conditions such as those above indicated, the disc will close the valve opening before any liquid passes into the bottle. And here the. tubule 30 comes into play. Assuming the conditions of Fig. 3, with a general liquid level as shown, there will be a local rise of liquid above that level, by capillary action, between the lower part ,of the disc and the confronting surface of the valve-seat, this raised body or film of liquid taking the form of a meniscus, indicated at M. The pull of this meniscus may not suffice to move the disc to closing position, but as'the general liquid level rises still further (so that, if the tubule 36 were not present,

the liquid would pass through the valve opening),

the capillary meniscus rises still higher, while the flow of the body of the liquid is restrained by the upward inclination of the tubule (Fig. '3) and therefore the level of the main body of liquid, also tive weight of the cork disc, so that the pull of the meniscus will presently draw the disc out of all contact with the weight and bring the disc to valve closing position, this hinge-like movement of the disc being indicated by the arrow in Fig. 3, and being facilitated by the fact thatthe disc is submerged to a greater portion of its height in the now deeper main body of liquid. All of this occurs very promptly, so that effective introduction of any but negligible quantity of liquid is practically prevented. In mygexperience, with dimensions etc. as hereinafter set forth, I have found that the capillary or meniscus effect is pronounced when the maximum distance the disc can move bodily away from the valve seat is not more than about a e", where the shell I5 is of metal; and with this movability I obtain desirable maximum flow through the valve opening into the casing in the normal pouring position of the bottle. If the shell is of porcelain, however, slightly greater movement may be allowed.

It will be obvious, referring to Fig. 3, that quick closing of the valve, under the operating conditions assumed, might be accomplished if the angles of the cone part of the weight and of the cooperating guard surface were increased, so that the weight would slide out of the guard and carry the disc to closed position. However, such an expedient would have the result that for pouring the bottle would have to be tilted to a position de- Extremev internal diameter of shell l5 lav Diameter of orifice 'l'|- g2? Diameter of tubule bore 9 Length of, lugs 34-; 9/64 Height of bead' 35 above base of cover Clearance between top of guard and bottom of lugs (-Fig. 1 position) 5/64" Combined height of guard and weight (Fig.

1 position) kg" Diameter of disc Thickness of disc A;" Weight member 20, of porcelain. I Length of tubule"; 7/64" Depth of grooves in cover; below rims 35' ea" Width of grooves in cover 13/64" Length of unribbed part of shell length 7 Angle. of exterior of truncated portion of 7 weight relative to axis 30 Angle of ribs interiorly of guard v 30 Minimum distance of valve seat from shell ribs e 7/64 Maximum, depth of trough around .valve seat Dimensions of lugs:

at inner face, 1%" on outer surface,

:9/64" long.

Maximum projection of ribs from shell wall- .055"

1 Width of ribs, tapered to radius at tip Width of annular fiatedge bounding the concavity '20 3 g" Maximum depth of concavity 20:

' Minimum .005" 7 Maximum .007

Maximum distance 'disc. I9 can move away from valve seat e I'claim:

" 1. A protective bottle stopper including a generally cylindrical valve casing providedat one end with an inlet and at the other end with :a fiat valve seat spaced from the side walls of the casing by an annular gutter and defining a valveopening, a buoyant disc-like valve member having one face confronting the valveopening, and of diameter substantially greater than the valve opening and less than that of the casing, said disc being movable towards and away from the valve seat, and a weight member movable withinthe casing towards and away from thevalve seat and having an end face adapted when wet to' adhere to the other face of the disc, the movement offthe weight member in the direction away'from.

the valve seat being limited to permit maximum flow of liquid through the valve opening intoth evalve seat and its upper edge portion in contact with the end face of the weight membenthere will be a capillary space between the disc and the valve seat, effective to cause loc'al rise'of liquid above the general liquid level, whereby the upper part of the disc also is drawn into contact vwith the valve seat before the general liquid level rises sufliciently' to cause flow through the valve opening.

2. The construction set forth in claim 1, in which the end face of the weight member con i fronting the disc is slightly dished.

3. The constructionset forth inclaim l, in which the end face of the weight member confronting the disc is provided with'a flatrim and a slight concavity bounded by the rim.

4. The construction set forth in claim 1, in which the valve casing has an outward tubular extension whose bore coincides with the valve opening. i r

5. The construction set forth in claim 1, in which the end face of the weight memberv con fronting the disc is slightlydished and in which the casing has an outward tubular extension whose bore coincides with the valve opening.

EDGEWORTH GREENE. 

